Sanoma is a leading consumer media and learning company in Europe. Sanoma is the market leader in Finland and the Netherlands with a broad presence across multiple platforms. The company’s history dates back to 1889 with the establishment of the newspaper Päivälehti in Finland.

Sanoma Group included two reportable segments in 2015: Consumer Media and Learning. Net sales and profits were reported for three strategic business units: Sanoma Media Netherlands, Sanoma Media Finland and Sanoma Learning.

The Learning segment, which is surveyed in this ranking, includes the Sanoma Learning strategic business unit. Sanoma Learning is a leading European provider of learning materials and solutions in print and digital format for primary, secondary and vocational education, primarily in Belgium, Finland, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden.

Consumer Media is responsible for magazines, TV, as well as online and mobile operations in Finland, the Netherlands and Belgium. The segment consisted of two strategic business units in 2015: Sanoma Media BeNe and Sanoma Media Finland.

Analysis & Key Developments

Financial

Sanoma’s net sales continued to decrease during 2016. Overall revenues amounted to 1.6 billion EUR compared to 1.7 billion EUR in 2015, a decrease of 4.5%. The decrease was due to several divestments. Adjusted for changes in the group structure, net sales remained almost flat to the previous year. As a result of cost innovations Sanoma’s operational EBIT in 2016 increased to 168 million EUR.

Sanoma Learning’s net sales increased between January and December 2016 by 0.8% to EUR 283 million EUR (280 million EUR in 2015). The segment generated 17.2% of the group’s total net sales. In 2016, net sales increased in Finland (48.1 million EUR) and Sweden (25.1 million EUR) as well as in Belgium (44.8 million EUR), where Sanoma acquired the educational publisher De Boeck and started to integrate it with the existing operations of Van In. Language’s performance in Poland (70.8 million EUR) was affected by a declining market volume due to the changes in the legislative environment.

Divestment

In January 2016, Sanoma divested the Finnish language service company AAC Global.

In February 2016, Sanoma sold its Dutch online car classifieds business Autotrader.nl to AutoScout24, resulting in a sales gain of 13.3 million EUR.

In March 2016 Sanoma divested the company’s remaining Russian assets. As announced on 30 December 2015, the transaction included Sanoma’s 50% stake in Fashion Press, the remaining operations in United Press and the 50% stake in Mondadori Independent Media. The transaction is a part of Sanoma’s strategic plan announced in 2013 to redesign its consumer media operations.

In April 2016 Sanoma Netherlands announced the divestment of the comparison website Kieskeurig.nl to Reshift.

During September 2016, Sanoma sold its Finnish Head Office custom publishing operations to Fokus Media.

Acquisition

In January 2016, Sanoma acquired an 80% stake in the Finnish learning services company TutorHouse.

In June 2016, Sanoma acquired the Dutch cashback marketing companies, Kortingisleuk.nl and the remaining shares of Scoupy.

Also during June 2016, Sanoma bought the K-12 educational publishing activities of Group De Boeck in Belgium from Ergon Capital Partners.

International

Sanoma’s net sales by country in 2016 include 46.5% from the Netherlands, 38.1% from Finland, 9.3% from Belgium and 6.1% from other countries.

Digital

During fiscal 2016 Sanoma, Learning continued to successfully introduce digital solutions in its markets. In 2016, the non-print sales amounted to 54% (50% in 2015) of the segment’s net sales.

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